I hope to leave the strut in place with the camber adjustment (top) unmolested. But I'm OK taking it out if necessary.

I have the tie rod, wishbone, and sway-bar nuts removed. The sway bar link is free of the away bar. I have some penetrating fluid on the tapered seats of the wishbone and the tie rod - they are not moving freely and i don't want to hit them too hard and damage the ball joints.

It seems that the strut should be at full extension and therefore not an issue. I somehow put it in ( 5 years ago!) so it must be :-)

Grant -- maybe you can clarify what is not coming apart, but I think you are talking about the ball joints where the control arm & tie rod attach to the wheel carrier.

Not necessarily in this order, you should:- Remove all brake stuff, wiring (ABS sensor etc.). At this point you have 3 nuts/bolts holding the wheel carrier to the car.- Remove the pinch bolt, so that the PSS9 is loosened from the wheel carrier. (I think this also disconnects the drop link and sway bar from the wheel carrier, right?)- Remove the nut holding the tie rod to the front corner of the wheel carrier.- Remove the nut holding the control arm to the rear corner of the wheel carrier.

Sounds like this is now where you are.- I know you need ( "really should use" ) a ball joint separator for at least one of the ball joints, maybe both. I would be very leery of putting a hammer on those because you can bend the bolt or damage the threads, but I know it happens. --> OBTAIN CHEAP BALL JOINT SEPARATOR for $20 at Harbor Freight.- Once those 3 connections (pinch bolt/drop link + control arm + tie rod) are severed, you can slide/wiggle the wheel carrier down off the shock, but the detached control arm may be in the way unless you loosen the pivot bolt or even remove it, to provide clearance below; it normally does not pivot down very far. Or you can loosen the shock top mounting to allow wiggle room, but that tweaks your camber unless you put it back exactly. I believe that r&r'ing the control arm pivot bolt should cause NO change in alignment.

Yes, you pretty much have it. I don't (yet) have the pinch bolt out, since the manual suggests doing that lastEither way, it is not the problem at the moment.

since i wrote the above, i've spent quite a bit of time getting nowhere on both ball joints. I have a ball joint tool(two jaws, does not press on boot, crank it with a screw to apply pressure) and nothing is happening. Have tapped the knuckle pretty hard, and the ball joint shaft lightly.I also placed a floor jack under the knuckle to bring the tie-rod ball joint to "neutral" position - 90 degrees, just in case that helped. So far it did not. I dont have a pickle fork and prefer not to use them -- but I'm all ears.

I left penetrating oil on over night. That may stay on until i return Sunday.

That's weird. The only time I've seen the ball joint tool fail to work was when the user set it up wrong and it was just working against itself until the tool broke! (Stripped the threads on the separator bolt.) Fortunately I had a spare tool so we were able to continue.

Coincidentally, this weekend I'm going to remove the LF wheel carrier. I need to install a new Tarett long drop link collar on the PSS9. The old collar broke last year during a practice session. I've been running borrowed "short" drop links since then.

I'm going to do a CFRA race day at Sonoma in a week, and then the next PCA Club Race at Buttonwillow a couple of weeks later.

The big recent news is that I got into Rennsport Reunion for the first time, so that should be a big fun weekend!

.. will go more smoothly than mine. I did get the tie rod out last night, but the tapered insert came with it; that's my next task.

I did NOT get the wishbone ball joint to release. I even called a buddy over to make sure i was not doing something dumb (like you spoke of).

The problem on the wishbone is that my ball joint tool doesn't quite fit right, and i was in no mood to do damage,so i punted and took out the wishbone with the knuckle and will let a pro deal with it....

I may get the tapered insert off with a traditional wheel puller. Any suggestions?

Make sure the bottom of the tool is pressing against the wheel carrier. You can also torch it but if you're planning to reuse the tie rod, avoid blasting the rubber boot directly. If you heat up the bolt from the top that should make the job much easier.

Boxsterra, thanks for the reminder photo. That's what I was expecting.

The front ball joint (toe link) came off very easily. I used an impact wrench to loosen the nut without needing to use the torx to hold the bolt. Then the tool pressed the joint apart quickly and without a bang.

The rear ball joint (control arm) came off "normally". A socket took the nut off fairly easily without the bolt turning. (That nut is awkward, and can be troublesome, especially to get a torque wrench and socket on it because it is so close to the bottom of the shock.) I carefully wedged the tool in place, and then kept fearfully tightening it, waiting for the BANG. More. More. More. Mo--BANG!! No problem.